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The high cost of victory in Kobani

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Kurdish Peshmerga forces have wrested control of Kobani away from ISIS

The Syrian city has been a key target, in part because it sits on the Turkish border

(CNN)Walk through the streets of Kobani, and the devastation wrought by fighting ISIS is immeasurable.

Entire buildings reduced to heap of rubble. A hospital virtually obliterated. Shoes and clothes strewn throughout the debris, their owners nowhere to be found.

After four months of intense fighting, Kurdish Peshmerga forces have liberated the Syrian city from the grip of ISIS.

Their prize: utter devastation.

A crucial city

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Kobani has been a coveted prize for ISIS, which has been on a murderous campaign to establish an Islamic state across parts of Syria and Iraq.

The city sits on the border with Turkey and would have given ISIS a complete swath of land between its self-declared capital in Raqqa, Syria, and Turkey.

And while there are many ISIS battlefields in both Syria and Iraq, Kobani is within sight from the Turkish border -- which means Western media and the world could see the magnitude of the fighting.

Photos:On the front lines in Kobani

Zehra, a 25-year-old Kurdish woman who lost her 8-month-old daughter due to a lung infection at a refugee camp, sits with her other daughter inside their home in Kobani, Syria, on Thursday, January 29. Her husband, a fighter from the People's Protection Units, or YPG, stands in the background. After four months of intense fighting, Kurdish Peshmerga forces have liberated Kobani from the grip of the ISIS militant group. Click through to see more photos of Kobani taken recently by Ricardo Garcia Vilanova.

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Photos:On the front lines in Kobani

Destruction in the center of Kobani on January 30. The city sits on the border with Turkey.

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Photos:On the front lines in Kobani

Photographs of civilians are seen on a street outside of a destroyed house on Saturday, January 31.

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Photos:On the front lines in Kobani

Members of the YPG prepare their ammunition on January 31.

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Photos:On the front lines in Kobani

Members of the YPG make their way to the front line of the battle with ISIS on January 31.

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Photos:On the front lines in Kobani

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Photos:On the front lines in Kobani

Ramue Dika, a civilian who died of starvation, is taken away from his house in Kobani on Monday, February 2.

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Photos:On the front lines in Kobani

Members of the Free Syrian Army gather in Kobani on February 2.

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Photos:On the front lines in Kobani

A Kurdish woman kneels beside the burial ground of her husband on Tuesday, February 3.

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Peshmerga forces wrestling for control of Kobani have received a boost from hundreds of U.S. and coalition airstrikes against ISIS. The strikes have hit terrorist targets, as well as buildings and houses.

Bittersweet homecomings

But after months of fighting ISIS, the Kobani area is now almost unrecognizable.

"They were advancing with heavy weapons, tanks, artillery, mortars, heavy weapons. They attacked us," said Bozane Shere, who is from a village just south of Kobani. "They attacked us. Then we took our cars and ran away."